The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago's Darryl Maximilian Robinson and The Trap Door Theatre of Chicago's Danny Belrose Visit Hollywood!
Chicago Stage Veterans Darryl Maximilian Robinson and Danny Belrose Celebrate Old Times in Tinseltown! Veteran and critically-praised Chicago ( now L. A.-based ) stage actors Darryl Maximilian Robinson ( The multiple award-winning Founder of the multiracial, non-Equity professional classical and contemporary chamber theatre The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago ) and Danny Belrose ( well-regarded, critically-acclaimed ensemble member and alum of The Trap Door Theatre of Chicago ) first appeared onstage together 25 years ago in the 1993 Excaliber Productions, Ltd. revival production of acclaimed American playwright Edward Albee's powerful dramatic one-act The Zoo Story at the intimate Cummel's Café in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. A Greater St. Louis area native recently graduated from high school, Mr. Belrose, who played Jerry in Excaliber's revival of The Zoo Story, had been a highly popular student stage performer who captured the 1992 Webster Groves High School Thespian Award as Best Actor for his performance as The Witch Boy in the haunting stage drama Howard Richardson's and William Berney's Dark of the Moon directed by respected youth drama instructor Ron Kenny, and also had won a Presidential Scholarship which helped him to go on to earn a degree in The Performing Arts from Chicago's Columbia College. After college, Danny Belrose would go on to score a series of rave reviews for his performance work in gritty, cutting edge dramas with The Trap Door Theatre in The Windy City. Now, living and acting in Los Angeles, Mr. Belrose earned his SAG/AFTRA card and has successfully transitioned to television roles, including appearances on Portlandia, MTV'S Buzz Kill and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. A 44-season veteran of the stage who directed and appeared as Peter opposite the gifted young Mr. Belrose's Jerry in Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, Darryl Maximilian Robinson has been awarded such honors as: the 1981 Fort Wayne News-Sentinel Reviewer's Recognition Award as Outstanding Thespian of the Season for a gallery of performances at northern Indiana's Enchanted Hills Playhouse of Syracuse ( particularly for his portrayal of Fagin in Lionel Bart's Oliver! ); a 1992 St. Louis Area Harpooners Of The Sea Unicorn Certificate Of Honourary Membership Award for his production, staging and performance as Sherlock Holmes in the 1992 Excaliber Productions, Ltd. mounting of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes: The Final Problem! at The Midtown Arts Center of St. Louis; and both a 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award as Outstanding Actor In A Principal Role In A Play and a 1997 Chicago Black Theatre Alliance Award Nomination as Best Leading Actor In A Play for his noted performance as Sam Semela in The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago Jeff Citation Nominated Best Production revival of Athol Fugard's Master Harold and The Boys ( which he also directed ) at The Heartland Café Studio Theatre in The Windy City. Having worked with numerous local and regional theatre groups around the country over the years , Mr. Robinson moved to Los Angeles in 2005, worked several "day gigs" to make ends meet, and resumed his stage career in plays and musicals in 2010, capturing excellent reviews for his roles as the old Shakespearean actor Henry Albertson in Tom Jones' and Harvey Schmidt's The Fantasticks, Major-General Stanley in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, The Reverend Sykes in playwright Christopher Sergel's stage adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, and District Attorney Flint in Ayn Rand's Night of January 16th, as well as earning a 2013 Los Angeles Marcom Masque Theatre Award Nomination as Best Actor In A Major Supporting Role for his performance as Booker T. Washington in a revival of the Tony Award-winning musical Ragtime and a 2015-2016 Los Angeles ELATE Season Ticket Holder Award Nomination as Best Actor for his portrayal of the debonair, but aging leading man Ernest in a revival of Tad Mosel's Impromptu. Back in the early 1990s, Darryl Maximilian Robinson was seeking new talent to expand his St. Louis Excaliber Company of Players and Danny Belrose ( who under Mr. Robinson's direction appeared as Amiens in William Shakespeare's As You Like It and also created the roles of Jake and Cruz in the world premieres of St. Louis playwright Robert Friedman's A Man of Experience and Fire and Brimstone ) was truly excellent as Jerry. But careers in The Theatre go in different directions, and the two actors would ultimately never appear onstage together during the time they were both doing some of their best stage work in Chicago. However, a completely chance meeting between the two performers occurred in Chinatown of L.A. in 2016 and briefly brought the two former Excaliber actors back together. And, a year later, in the Fall of 2017, the two men of the stage had what could be best called "An Actors' Summit" in Hollywood, and for the first time in nearly a quarter-of-a-century, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Belrose celebrating A Zoo Story Cast Reunion, enjoyed some laughs, theatre war stories, good food and SOME FAKE OSCARS in Tinseltown. ''' https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/139880810/ http://www.abouttheartists.com/productions/100419-the-zoo-story-at-cummels-cafe-1993